


For a Little While

by Allamarain



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Everyone can have a little Thasmin as a treat, Gen, Humor, Post-Episode: s12e01-02 Spyfall, Thasmin (brief)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22308022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allamarain/pseuds/Allamarain
Summary: The TARDIS doesn't know what's wrong with her Time Lord. She's been in a terrible mood for weeks with no signs of stopping.As her oldest friend, she takes it upon herself to cheer up the Doctor.She's not entirely sure how to do that, but she's willing to try a lot of different tactics until she finds something that works.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & The Doctor's TARDIS
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	For a Little While

_”Ryan, how many times do I have to tell you not to touch things!?!”_

Three heads whipped around, surprised at the severity of the Doctor’s tone. Ryan took a step backwards, putting up his hands. “Umm, sorry. Just wanted to get a better look at this flower.” They were on Ankalasia, taking a tour of the Queen’s Garden. He’d leaned down to examine a yellow blossom with pink leaves when she’d gone off on him. 

“Beautiful but dangerous”. Brushing past Yaz, she soniced his hands. “Clean.” she muttered, examining the reading. “You’re lucky. If you’d gotten any pollen on you, there’d be a swarm of giant Grrpoids coming after you. They’re like bees, but predatory. Wouldn’t want that,” she added, noticing her mates exchanging worried glances. She knew she’d been hard on him. But she’d had a short fuse these days. It was as if the universe had gotten substantially more annoying in the past few weeks. 

That wasn’t the real reason she was moody, of course. She had been since she’d left the smoldering ruins of her planet. But she wasn’t going to talk about that. Right now, as the only living person in this realm that knew Gallifrey was destroyed, she could pretend it was a dream. Speaking of it would make it real. 

She put on her best smile, hoping she was convincing. “Let’s go see the hedge maze, yeah? It’s ace! Very challenging-moves around at random. Never the same maze twice.” She walked ahead, the fam trailing behind at some distance. 

For the rest of the trip, the Doctor played the role of tour guide, rattling off facts, pointing out rare plants. But the tension among them was palpable. Ryan,moved along the paths in the hedge maze like he was in a china shop, footsteps so quiet she barely heard them, even with her enhanced senses. Even Yaz, who was usually right by her side wherever they went. She’d look at the Doctor every now and then, concern brewing in her dark eyes. 

She should tell them.

She can’t tell them. 

She needed to keep taking them to different worlds, different times. Distract herself from the horror of her discovery. If she pretended everything was all right, it was.

For a little while.  
\--  
Back at the TARDIS, the fam all made excuses to go off and do their own thing. Graham announced he was knackered and going to lie down. Ryan was eager to read a book. Yaz needed to call her mum. The Doctor sighed, leaning against the console. Yaz used to love just sitting in the console room, soaking up what she’d had to say. She’d listen to the Doctor talk for hours if she could. The Doctor had thought there was some attraction, maybe even love behind those looks of adoration. They could have had something together, once, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not now. Relationship with Yaz-yet another thing she’d ruined.

So she was alone. That was fine. She was in perfectly good company by herself. 

She went to the stairs to take a moment to collect herself. Approaching them, she blinked in surprise. There, on the hexagonal platform, was a steaming mug of tea. And next to it, a book. _The Little Prince_. One of her favorites. 

The tea couldn’t have been sitting around all day. She looked around. “Anyone here?” But was met with only the constant hum of the TARDIS engines. She grabbed the mug, sniffing it. Earl Grey, lemon, with two, no three sugars. Just the way she liked it. Had one of her mates put this out for her? Maybe Ryan, as a further apology.

Taking a sip from the tea, which was absolutely perfect, she turned back to the console. Another book, Stephen Hawking’s _Black Holes and Baby Universes_ , rested near the main lever. 

A chill went through her. That definitely wasn’t there a minute ago. Setting the mug down, she took a walk around the console, and found four more books: a mystery, a book of Venusian poetry, a biography of Queen Victoria XXI, and a familiar, weather beaten copy of _Slaughterhouse Five_. She flipped open to the first page, finding Vonnegut’s autograph addressed to "The Doctor" in faded ink.

These books were all from her library.

She walked down the narrow, winding corridor while texting the fam on group chat. _Has anyone been in the library today?_ The replies were three unanimous _Nos_.

The library looked exactly the same way she’d left it the last time she was in here, looking for the water slide blockage, weeks ago. Walls lined with bookshelves, with 19th century Earth settees scattered about. A few unshelved books were on the closest one. She scanned the library with the sonic. No signs of anything unusual. Must be some type of TARDIS malfunction. She went back to the console room, where yet another book made its appearance: Ralph Ellison’s _The Invisible Man_.

“Blast it! If I don’t figure this out, I’ll be buried in books!” Squatting down she ran her hand over the console panels. They were covered in dust; she hadn’t tinkered with it in ages. She’d get this sorted.  
\--

The Doctor jolted awake to the sound of Graham shouting for her. She’d fallen asleep on the console room floor, not having found the source of the appearing books. Now there was more trouble.

“Doc!” he repeated, sounding panicked.

“Coming!” IIn two seconds, she was barrelling down the narrow corridor. Mentally, she listed off the possibilities of what could have happened. More books had shown up? A different malfunction? The giant rabbits had escaped from the zoo? 

She turned the corner, stopping, coming face to face with Graham at the doorway to his room. On his head, in place of his usual hair, was a foot tall, deep blue mohawk.

She put her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh. 

“It’s not funny!” he said. “What happened to my hair?! I can’t go out looking like this!”

Ryan, having heard the shouting, came running down the hall “What’s going….what did you do?” he burst out laughing.

“No laughing out of either of you!” he said. “I didn’t do anything! Just woke up and… _this_ happened.” he pointed to his head.

She furrowed her brow. What would have caused this? Nothing they’d eaten or been exposed to yesterday would have changed their hair. The Doctor scanned him with the sonic and examined the reading. “Good news! Well, odd, but good.” She looked up to her friend. “That’s not actually your hair. It’s just a hologrammatic projection. “ She waved the sonic at him, and the mohawk popped out of existence, leaving only his usual hair. “Should be all right now.”

Graham felt the top of his head for his hair before rushing back into his room to look in the mirror. “Thank God.”

“I think you should have kept it, Graham.” Ryan teased, leaning into the doorway. “A new look for you.”

“My look is just fine, son.” he puffed out his chest. 

“It looks old.”

“It looks _distinguished._ ”

The Doctor tried to wrap her head around what had happened as they argued. This reminded her of something. She needed to think. Hologrammatic mohawk, the same blue as…

The TARDIS. Ohhhh. She remembered Christmas on Mendorax Dellora, and the hologrammatic antlers. To cheer her (or rather, him) up. Well, she wasn’t asking to be cheered up. She didn’t want to be. What did the TARDIS understand about anything? The time machine understood emotions, but she couldn’t grasp the reasons. And the Doctor had every reason to sulk.

“I know what you’re doing!” she shouted, staring at the glowing ceiling. “Not up for any games!”

Ryan and Graham stopped arguing and looked at her, wary. “I didn’t do anything, Doc,” Graham was annoyed.”I told you I woke up like that.”

“Not you. Talkin’ to the TARDIS. She’s trying to..” she caught her tongue. One more thing to explain that she was unwilling to acknowledge. “she’s not working right.” The TARDIS, for her part, interrupted her soft hum with a high-pitched whine, and the lights flickered. She wasn’t sure what that meant-the TARDIS reactions changed with every redecoration-but she thought she sensed some reluctance.

Ryan shrugged at all this. Malfunctions happened more often than they didn’t. “Is it anything we should be worried about?”

“No, in fact I think they’re going to stop, immediately.” she emphasized the last few words. “Everything is going to be fine…”

She was interrupted by her phone buzzing. It was a text from Yaz:

_In the console room. Big problem. Where are u?_

“Coming, Yaz!” she shouted. She ran back down the hall, followed by the men.

Standing in front of the console, Yaz stood with her hands on her hips, her brows furrowed in anger. Her posture and expression clashed with her outfit: a pink, plush, unicorn onesie.

“Something’s gone wrong with my wardrobe!“ she spat out the words. ”All my clothes have been replaced with these...these things. Even my nightie and my dressing gown!”

While the Doctor soniced her outfit, Ryan doubled over laughing. “Oi! How would you like being dressed like a three year old?!” Yaz snapped.

“The TARDIS wants to give us makeovers. You should have seen Granddad just now. He had a blue mohawk!”

She looked at Graham, who gave her a noncommittal shrug. “Rather have a mohawk than this.” She pushed up the pink polyester sleeves. “Not only does this look ridiculous, it’s way too hot!”

The Doctor looked over the readings. Fortunately, they were all too distracted by Yaz to comment about the books that littered the console room, which by a brief glance, had doubled overnight. “Definitely not a hologram this time.” She met Yaz’s eyes. “Little malfunction. I’ll take a look in your room. Why don’t you borrow something from the wardrobe downstairs?”

Yaz was moving before she finished the sentence. “Not another word from either of you.” Her footsteps echoed as she stomped off.

In Yaz’s closet and dressers, the Doctor found indeed every single item was a plush onesie. Puppies. Kittens. Bears. Tigers. Dragons. Seals. Who wears a seal onesie?

“You need to knock it off!” she said to the ceiling. “No more mohawks, no more books. Just be a ship! That’s all I’m askin’! That’s all I need from ya!”

The TARDIS didn’t outwardly respond, though she felt traces of it through the telepathic link. Sorrow. Concern. She felt a taste in her mouth, salty tears.  
She stomped out of Yaz’s room. She didn’t need sympathy from TARDIS any more than she did the fam. 

\--  
“I think I’ve worked out the pattern! Big jump here, followed by three more little ones, and aahhh! I buggered up again!” she fell on her bottom, bouncing on the trampoline that had replaced the TARDIS console. By the TARDIS. It had been that way since this morning, and not even an hour long tirade of shouting would change it back.

She was close. She was sure she was close. The engines had fired up, but the usual groans were spiked with stuttering. She was stuck in neutral, and the Doctor had to shift her into first gear...by figuring how the right pattern of jumps. Ryan and Yaz sat on the ground, staring at her in bewilderment and annoyance as she tried different combinations of jumps, bounces, and on occasion, somersaults.

Over the past few days, the team had been subjected to yet more ideas the TARDIS had for improving their spirits. Among them:

-Altering the translational circuits so they spoke only in rhyme.  
-Broadcasting “Yakety Sax” while they were being changed by an ogress on a space station.  
-Replacing the pool water with chocolate. 

The Doctor maintained it was just a series of malfunctions, but the fam’s initial amusement had turned to annoyance. Formerly tense, they were all now on edge.

Yaz sighed, burying her face in her hands as she sat on the steps.They’d all been sitting here for hours, waiting for the Doctor to either figure out how to change the console back, or surrender to the TARDIS’ whims. Behind her, Ryan was immersed in a game on his phone, bored with the Doctor’s shenanigans. Graham had given up ages ago, and gone back to his room. “This is a lot of malfunctions, Doctor,” she said. “Maybe, once you get the TARDIS started this time, we go to Gallifrey? Someone on your home planet can help?”

 _Home planet_. The words burned in her hearts. She no longer had a home planet. She turned away from the fam, shifting on the trampoline, trying to regain her composure before she spoke. “Can’t do that. Stolen, remember? Besides, this is a really, really old TARDIS. Don’t make the parts for it anymore.”

“But it has to be worth…” 

“No, no reason to do that. Besides, I’ve almost got the takeoff sequence figured out.” the Doctor interrupted. She gave Yaz a small smile, but her eyes were clouded with darkness. Their meaning was clear: _Don’t even think about asking again._

The Doctor gritted her teeth. She needed to fix this. She’d torn apart the console (when it existed), implemented every subroutine she could think of in the software, done a full evaluation of the engine room (except for the day it was turned into a ball pit), but the mischief kept coming. The old girl had gotten far too stubborn in her old age. She’d told her verbally, telepathically, whispering, shouting, pleading, to stop with the bloody pranks, but the only response she ever got were an occasional whine or wheeze.

She curled her fingers around the springs and pushed herself back up, sock-clad feet on the edge of the trampoline as she took a few test bounces. She would figure out how to stop this. She wasn’t going to let a semi-sentient time machine get the best of her.

\--  
The Doctor had taken the fam on a trip to 18th Century Paris, which was blissfully uneventful. A stroll through the ancient streets had brightened their spirits, but they’d turned tense again when the blue box came into sight. “Wonder what’s waitin’ for us this time,” Graham said. 

“Hope there’s more sweets involved,” Ryan said. The chocolate pool had been his personal favorite, and he grumbled when the Doctor drained it. “Have you found the malfunction yet?”

“I assure you, before we left, I ran a full diagnostic on every system.” she fiddled with the key in the lock. “Added some software upgrades, shut down some old functions, and it should be working perf...what is this?!” She was greeted by a wall of foam, reaching up to her hips.

Yaz wandered into the console room, leaving a narrow swath of empty space behind her. She put an experimental hand in the foam. “It’s soap bubbles.”

“Ohhh, nooo!” she moaned, brushing past Yaz to the console. “Soap everywhere! It’ll take days to get rid of all this!” She looked up at the ceiling. “This ends, or I’m throwin’ you in a scrapyard!” The TARDIS ignored her, her quiet hum unbroken. The Doctor knew she’d never get rid of her timeship, and the TARDIS knew it too. Nonetheless, it felt good to make the threat.

“Sorry about this, really I am.” she looked back at her mates. Ryan and Graham were still standing at the entrance, exasperated. But Yaz scooped up a handful of bubbles. A smile crept across her face as she threw them at the Doctor. “Got you!”

The alien put out a hand, shooing her off.“I’ve got to clear off the console so we can leave.” 

“Oh, come on, Doctor!” she scooped up more bubbles,acing them on her head. “Look, boys! Like my new hairdo?”

“Love it..” Ryan ventured into the bubbles, placing some on his upper lip. “Thinking of growing a mustache. How does it look?”

Yaz bent over laughing. The Doctor, frustrated, leaned over the console, trying to wipe off the bubbles with her hands. Then that didn’t work, she used her coat, until it became wet and slick with soap. Behind her, she heard Ryan and Yaz, and even Graham joining in, playing with the bubbles, laughing and giggling, with an occasional squeal. They sounded like they were having the time of their lives. 

She stopped, giving the fam a closer listen. That was genuine joy. She hadn’t heard it from them in so long.

Turning around to watch, she saw the three of them trying to throw soap at each other. Graham was running along the room’s perimeter, trying to gather up as much foam as he could, being chased by Ryan. Yaz was on the opposite side, face bathed in blue light, grinning.

The Doctor had to admit, a console room filled with soap bubbles was pretty funny. She smiled, a genuine smile for the first time since her trip home. 

Retrieving her damp coat from the console, she used it to scoop up a giant mass of bubbles. She noticed the others stop, expectant, watching to see what she’d do next.

“I should warn you,” she lifted the coat. “I’m a three-time soap fight champion of New Beijing!” With that, she flung the bubbles out, letting them drift down over her mates’ heads. 

They laughed. She laughed. They chased her around the console room, threatening to attack her. Her socks squished in her boots and her hair was slick with soap, but she didn’t care. 

_This doesn’t change anything_ , the thought popped into her head as she ran. Her home was still destroyed, her people gone...but in this moment, here, with her mates, she could be all right. She could laugh. She could allow herself joy. 

For a little while.


End file.
